The Joy Of Nature

I found the best book recently,

It's called Teaching Your Children Joy

It's a little old school, but sometimes the best things have withstood the test of time!
It is intended for toddler and preschool age kids about the world around them.
The idea is that children have an innate sense of curiosity about their world, and if we as parents and caregivers can foster that, then it will help them be life long learners.

We started with with the Joy of the Earth.
So fun!
Each chapter is filled, I mean JAM PACKED with ideas about teaching children each "Joy".
We headed out to a nature study area nearby and I let my kids have free reign.  They looked at leaves, trees, snails, flowers, everything really.

I added little comments about what I knew, and I asked them questions to help them discover more.
Things like, "I can see where that snail has been walking, can you tell where he's been?"  Or "I can see how old that tree was before they cut it down, can you?"

I know it sounds really simplistic, but it was great for me to let them guide their own learning.  They soaked it up and were so happy.

The book suggests to focus on one joy for an entire month, that way you can really do a lot of activities, and not get overwhelmed at the same time.


We also had a fun time making bug habitats. We made sure the rolly polys had enough food and shade

Another fun thing we did was to play in the garden. I let them pick and eat as many strawberries as they wanted (within reason;)

We are excited for some of the other joys like joy of the body (aka playing a lot!), joy of the imagination.

So much joy! I can't wait!

Dino Days

We couldn't learn about reptiles,

and not learn about Dinosaurs!

We started out by learning how Dinosaurs com from eggs.

We read Dinosaur Babies.

It is great because it shows how the dinosaurs come from eggs.

We then got out our paper mache,

and balloons,

We made our own dinosaur eggs.

She didn't actually love getting her fingers messy,

so I had to finish making her egg.

We let them dry,

And secretly I put some of our dinosaurs inside.

Then I patched up the hole with paper mache.

Then she pretended she was a mama dinosaur,

and I was the predator.

She went and hid her eggs in the sand.

Then she pretended that they hatched,
so she could see what was inside.

Then she played in the sandbox by herself for a while.
(Isn't alone playing time the best?)

Here are the other Dinosaur Books we are reading this week:

First Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Pre-historic life.

The title is a little long and boring,
but this book rocks!
It is full of facts and right on a preschoolers level.

Ten Little Dinosaurs
(with the wiggly eyes)

This book is really fun,
if you can get past pronouncing all of the names.
It is good for talking about how dinos became extinct.

No T-Rex in the Library

is nonfiction, but really fun to realize
how huge dinosaurs really were.

Dinosaur Roar!

Is really great for little boys
aka Baby H.
All of the dinosaurs dance and walk,
and most of the words in the book are different sounds a dinosaur makes.

Swimming Sea Turtles

We are moving on to the world of Reptiles!

We started by learning about turtles.

And their life cycle...

We loved the book One Tiny Turtle

By Nicola Davies

It shows beautifully how a sea turtle lives,

and eventually lays her eggs in the sand.

It's great because it doesn't start at the "beginning".

So it's perfect way to learn a life cycle differently.

We decided to make sequencing cards to learn

about the sea turtles life cycle.

We started by painting glue on for our sand.

I love how Baby H. helps out lately.

We did an egg mosaic for the turtles egg,

And did tear art for the grown turtle.

Although it is a fairly simply project,

I had to work really hard to keep her attention to the end.

I promised her she could dance afterwards.

Here she is pretending to be a turtle in an egg,

She danced while I clapped my hands

and sang about a turtle growing up.

Later she pretended to hide the turtle eggs in the sand.

Dancing is a fun way to reinforce concepts,

and it works for preschoolers through sixth graders.

Here are the reptile books we are reading this week:

The Mixed-Up Chameleons

Chameleon's Colors

Fun Facts about Turtles

Franklin Goes to the Hospital

Life Cycle: Fish

The life cycle of a fish is so cool!

So we decided to act/dance/draw it out.

I got onto You tube, but the best fish life cycle video for kids is

Finding Nemo

I decided a fun way to do this would be to make a fish costume.

My inspiration came from a duck towel we have.

I cut out my fabric with pinking shears (so I didn't have to finish the edges.)

Don't be overwhelmed by using fabric.

You could make a small fish costume out of a brown grocery sack.

I also sewed a small fish for her to decorate.

She painted it with puff paint.

And added some fabric frills.

Then when the costume was complete we headed outside.

To represent the fish eggs she blew bubbles.

To represent the baby fish she ran around the yard

with the fish she had painted.

Then we went inside and put on her favorite music

and danced it out.

Dancing is a great way for children to understand sequencing.

This is her pretending to be a little fish egg.

Next she walked around on her knees to be a baby fish.

It was fun to have her pretend to be a fish!

These are the books we are reading with our fish theme.



Fishy Fun

Today I loaded everyone into the car,

and didn't tell them where we were going.

Surprise! Welcome to the Acquarium!

Before we went I reviewed some of the

great things we learned about fish.

So when we got there, she was pumped and ready to go.

She was obsessed with the tiny sea horse,

(Which is what she is looking at here.)

She would not put her hands in any touch tanks,

I don't blame her since a ray tried to jump out,

and nibble a little girls hand while we were there.

Yikes!

But she showed her bravery in other ways.

Like getting this close to an anaconda.

Eeek!

She was facinated with the adorable penguins,

Although they aren't fish, they were a

wonderful part of acquarium life.

After we finished we went back into the pirate ship,

and read lots of the books they had about fish.

While we were in there a mom rushed her kids out of there,

and said, "Let's keep going, this part is boring."

Miss S. looked at me and said,

"Mom, they should have stayed, books are Not boring!"

Yes!

Weekly Wrap-up Outdoor Fun

There are so many fun things to do outside!

I don't want this week to end.

To wrap up the week we made our own water wall.

I found an empty fence area and wired on fun water manipulatives.

Next year, this will be Mr. Wonderful's project, it will be awesome!

If I had all the time in the world,

Here are some other fun things I would do with Outdoor Play.

Or maybe I'll just do it next year!

This first one is from Sun Hats & Wellie Boots.

She made kid-friendly spray paint.

She disinfected some old cleaning bottles,

and added paint.

The end result is fantastic!

The next one comes from Clementine Art.

She put up a sheet on a clothes line,

and let her kids make "Messy Art"

Isn't this cool!?

She talks about how much children can learn

by having artistic freedom.

She gives tons of tips how to make this parent friendly.

Lastly, my friend at Jada Roo Can Do,

Made a balloon sprinkler.

She filled these huge balloons full of water

and poked holes in them.

Her kids loved running under them!

I found and pinned lots of ideas to my Pinterest boards,

Don't you love Pinterest?

If you have any more Outdoor Fun ideas,

Leave a link and description and I'll pin it to my board.